Odisha Deputy Chief Minister Mr. Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo, while laying emphasis on invigoration of the healthcare system on Friday, said medical education has to be made affordable so that healthcare could reach every doorstep.

“Any form of good medical care is available in the major cities and people from rural areas are required to be brought to such hospitals from distant places for treatment. Invariably, lives are lost,” he said while addressing the inaugural session of the 4th World Conference on Comprehensive Critical Care (W4C) and 2nd Odisha Criticon 2024 here on Friday.

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The deputy CM said young men and women keen to pursue a career in medical science needed to spend a lot of money and were reluctant to go to the rural areas when they became doctors. “The need is to make medical education affordable so that we can provide medical help to the people in the villages,” he said.

The BJP government in Odisha was committed to extending all support for creation of medical infrastructure at the grass root level in the state, he said adding “the government is willing to do the handholding for any entrepreneur willing to do it”.

The four-day conference, which began on Thursday, is being hosted by SUM Ultimate Medicare (SUMUM) in collaboration with Bhubaneswar Chapter of Indian Society for Critical Care Foundation (ISCCM). The theme of the conference is ‘Multi-organ Failure: Prevention and Management Demystified.’ A book on the subject was also unveiled on the occasion.

Mr. Singh Deo said when Covid-19 struck, the state did not have the required infrastructure, doctors and personnel to cope with the pandemic. But the medical fraternity responded in a big way which helped in saving lives.

The inaugural session was also attended by Prof. (Dr.) Pradeep Kumar Bhattacharya, Chairman of ISCCM, Dr. Swetapadma Dash, CEO of SUMUM, Prof. (Dr.) Narendra Rungta, Chairman cum Managing Trustee, W4C, Dr. Banambar Ray, Head of Critical Care Medicine department at SUMUM and Organising Chairman, W4C, and Dr. Anand Mishra, Senior Consultant, Critical Care Medicine at SUMUM and Organising Secretary of the event.

Prof. (Dr.) Bhattacharya said the conference was intended to spread awareness about critical care medicine as it was not widely known. “All doctors need to have critical care understanding and knowledge about basic life saving techniques to ensure that more lives are saved,” he said.

“No life should be left to the mercy of geography and there was a need for dedicated interns in the field of critical care after they completed the MBBS course,” he said.

Prof. (Dr.) Rungta said that 60 to 70 per cent of the people in India still lived in the rural areas and the need was to train and empower doctors living in smaller towns and cities. The ISCCM, he said, was willing to extend its services and transfer its skill and knowledge to doctors living in such places.

Dr. Dash welcomed the guests while pointing out that the global momentum today was towards the field of critical care. Dr. Mishra proposed the vote of thanks.

Several critical care experts from abroad and India attending the conference were felicitated on the occasion. They included Prof. (Dr.) Mitchell M. Levy, Director of Critical Care Medicine at Rhode Island, Prof. (Dr.) Michael O’Leary from New South Wales, Australia and Prof. (Dr.) Roopen Arya of King’s College Hospital, London. The experts from India who were felicitated included Dr. Samir Sahu, Dr. Sharmilee Sinha, Dr. Pragyan Routray and Dr. Prashant Kumar.